Family Man
by mamaXunicorn
Summary: Despite all the insanity in their lives, Neal and Emma discover they can still make their dreams come true. Swanfire family fluff.


_**A/N: I posted this a while ago on tumblr and finally decided to post it here. It was written during the beginning of season 3 so some things deviate past the Neverland arc.**_

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Emma wasn't sure when she had decided on it.

It could have been the moment she stole his stolen car.

It could have been when Neal hung over that portal and she thought she'd never see him again.

It could have been when they found each other once again in Neverland.

It could have been when he nearly risked his life, again, to rescue Henry from Pan's clutches.

It could have been the look on Henry's face when he saw his father alive and rescuing him and the similar look on Neal's as the pair embraced – and didn't let go for a good few minutes.

It could have been that night on the Jolly Roger as they sought a way back to Storybrooke and finally had that talk they had been denying themselves.

It could have been their first night together after eleven years.

It could have been after one of the countless dates they went on to not only rebuild their friendship but the love that never truly went away.

It could have been when they in not so many words agreed to move in together and Neal had that goofy smile on his face as he hung up the dream catcher in the window of their bedroom.

It could have even been after small family moments like the one currently playing out before her.

So if you had asked Emma when she knew she wanted to marry Neal Cassidy, she wouldn't be able to tell you, she just knew that she did.

A warm smile sat on her lips as she watched her boys. It was her and Neal's week with Henry (after they came to a very reasonable agreement with Regina) and Neal had heckled their son into helping him with the dishes so Emma could "rest."

She nearly fought him on that – yes she was working long hours at the station and yes, the little life quickly growing inside of her was beginning to take its toll on her body but she was "not an invalid" and she could "wash the dishes."

Neal had his charm though, the Stiltskin charm that she was impervious to in the older man but not so much in his son. He simply pushed her back into the chair, one hand over her slightly swollen abdomen and shushed her with a kiss. Flashing her a grin and then dragging their almost thirteen year old to the sink with him, Emma relented and was honestly glad to be off her feet, if only for another fifteen minutes.

However, she knew the peace wouldn't be lasting long and Henry was as much of a trouble maker as his father and grandfather and in the midst of cleaning a dish, not so subtly flicked soap suds in his father's direction.

Neal reciprocated immediately, splashing the suds back into his son's face and soon there was an all out war.

Emma knew there would be no stopping them. She knew boys and better yet, she knew her boys. The goofball, trouble making Cassidy men.

She let out a resigned sigh, with a playful eye roll and let their fight continue until they had soaked the counter, the floor surrounding their feet, and their clothes and finally surrendered to heart warming laughter.

Neal cast a quick glance over his shoulder and at Emma's slightly bemused stare only laughed harder.

Henry also caught her gaze and echoed his father's grin which was soon covered by Neal throwing a dish towel in his face.

"Hey!" Henry shot back and smacked his father's arm with it and Neal ran his hand affectionately over the boy's soapy head, holding up another dish towel in his other hand.

Father and son cleaned up their mess, still playfully bumping and shoving each other along the way but eventually the water and the dishes were all cleaned up.

Emma glanced at the clock and smirked. Only her boys could turn a fifteen minute dish wash into over a half hour soap war.

"I'm soaked!" Henry laughed, taking a step away from the sink, casting an accusing look at his father.

"You started it." Neal laughed back, childishly.

Henry didn't even bother to protest, he just grinned proudly.

"You both are incredibly mature." Emma said from the table, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

"You love it." Neal shot back with a grin and she rolled her eyes.

She did love it, though.

After a minute, Henry shivered as the brisk November Maine air finally hit him and he excused himself to go change.

Once he was gone, Emma looked over to Neal. The soap had nearly dissolved by now but there were a few patches on his shirt and in his hair and she couldn't help the laugh that escaped her lips.

She rose from the chair and walked over to him, slowly shaking her head, a smile planted on her lips. She grabbed one of the dryer towels and started dab away at the remaining soap suds.

"You know if you keep encouraging him like that we're going to be in a whole lot of trouble come his teenage years." Emma told him with a smirk.

"Let's face it, Ems, that kid was doomed to a life of trouble based on genetics alone." Neal replied with a smirk of his own. "My father, your parents, me, you…not to mention who he was raised by. Look at it this way, at least he's starting wars in the kitchen with soap and not war on the kingdom with magic."

Emma snorted. "The kingdom?"

Neal shrugged. "Storybrooke – whatever."

Emma shook her head and rubbed the last of the soap out of his hair and then linked her fingers together behind his head, slipping her hands down to loop around his neck, her eyes scaling down to meet his.

He grinned at her, his hands finding her hips and he pulled her closer, his thumbs brushing rubbing in soft circles against her protruding abdomen. "So you think this kid is just as screwed?"

She shot him a look at his choice of words. "Henry is not screwed and neither will this one be. I'll just have to make sure to keep her out of trouble….as much as possible."

"Her – you're so convinced it's a her."

Emma hummed in affirmation, smiling up at him. "It's a mother's instinct, Neal."

"Well if its as accurate as your other Super Power-" He was cut off by his own grunt as Emma kneed his thigh.

"I dare you to give me one instance where I was wrong with that." She shot back and he opened his mouth to respond and she waiting patiently with a smirk which only grew as the silence continued. Slowly, he closed his mouth, pursing his lips and she let out a short "Ha!" in victory.

She unwound her hands from his neck and moved to his side, reaching to mop up a puddle of water on the counter he had missed. "You're getting a daughter, Cassidy. Live with it."

Neal turned to face her, the grin back in place on his lips as he leaned against the counter. "I certainly can live with that."

Emma smiled back at him and they shared a quick moment of glowing in the prospect of becoming parents again. Then Emma returned to mopping up the puddle of water.

Neal crossed behind her, his hand brushing across the small of her back sending a thrill up her spine and then he moved beside her to start putting the dishes away.

After the puddle was cleaned, Emma turned to watch him. He was a joker and a trouble maker and a fun loving goofball most of the time but he also settled into domesticity quite well. He never gave her a hard time in helping around the house especially after the news of her pregnancy. He joked around with Henry, started soap wars and the like all the time, but he was also a father and she was amazed how well he took to it. He gave Henry advice, serious and helpful advice, whenever Henry asked and Henry, grateful to have a father in his life to turn to, did so often. He helped Henry with his homework when and if needed. He made sure Henry got to school everyday. Neal Cassidy was a family man through and through and it was all he had ever wanted.

Neal paused, placing one of the dishes away and a small smile spread across his lips at the way Emma was looking at him. "What?"

Her lips parted slightly as she inhaled and she only needed another silent moment of staring into his joyful gaze for confirmation. She shook her head slowly and a small, slightly shy but confident smile spread across her lips as she took a step forward. "Marry me?"

The dish he was putting away fell the remaining few centimeters and made a low clattering as it hit the others as he stared at her wide-eyed. His arm remained in the air a few moments before lowering to his side as he turned to her, searching her eyes. "Wha- you're serious?"

"Yeah." Emma breathed, sucking in her lower lip for a moment before they curled into a smile.

They had briefly talked about it back when they first rekindled their relationship and then again once they found out she was pregnant but both agreed they didn't want to rush into anything, especially just for the sake of the baby.

"You just tell me when you're ready, Emma." He had said and she knew Neal was leaving it in her hands.

She had contemplated marriage but it had never felt truly right. They knew they loved each other. They lived together, they had their own little unusual family and no piece of legal paper needed to prove that they were one.

There was something stirring in her now and it wasn't just the beginnings of the fluttering movements of their unborn child. They would never have a normal family. They would never have 'Tallahassee' and that was alright with her now. Seventeen year old Emma and thirty year old Emma had different dreams…but the common factor was Neal. Sharing her life with Neal. It didn't matter where and at first having him and Henry was enough. Then, after getting over the shock of the new baby, that was enough. Her ideals of what she wanted for her family kept changing and now she realized she wanted to marry Neal Cassidy. She wanted to call him her husband.

There was still that shock in his eyes and she reached over to grab both his hands in hers, meeting his gaze seriously. "I want to do this, Neal. I don't know – maybe it is the baby that's making me all sappy but it feels right you know? Not because of the baby, not because of anything else…I've been thinking about it for a while. I never saw the point before, not really, but I see it now. I want to have it all – I want to be yours, forever."

Neal stared at her in silent awe for a few moments and then a smile broke across his face, that smile that turned her insides into mush and could light up all of Storybrooke.

"Ask me again." He said quietly.

"What?" Her brow twitched.

"Ask me again." He repeated.

She shot him a look. "You really need me to ask you again? I'm not going to get down on one knee or anything…"

He just laughed joyously and shook his head. "You don't have to do that…just…ask again. I wasn't ready for it."

"That was the point, Neal."

He pressed his lips together and gave her that look, the round eyed, eager puppy dog look that she could never resist.

She sighed with a smile and squeezed his hands, focusing all her attention on him. "Neal – Baelfire – Cassidy…" She started and for once his old name caused an even bigger smile to form on his lips. "Will you marry me?"

That grin over took his face once more and he released her hands, quickly winding them around her waist and gently as possible as not to hurt the growing life inside her, pulled her against him. "Hell yes, Emma Swan." He muttered huskily before leaning down and kissing her.

Emma smiled against his mouth and wound her fingers into his hair, pulling him deeper into the kiss. Giddy laughter from both of them broke through every so often providing the most interesting kiss of their life.

They finally pulled away a few minutes later, both grinning, both beaming as they stared down at each other. Neal's hands once again found their way to her baby bump and his eyes still shining he asked, "You're really sure about this?"

"Yes." Emma nodded without a doubt. "It doesn't have to happen right away…in fact I definitely want to wait until after the baby is born to do anything."

Neal nodded in whole hearted agreement. Dealing with a wedding on top of a pregnancy would not play out well, he was smart enough to know that.

"Couldn't agree more." He said, still smiling.

"But one day." Emma continued with a grin. "One day in the near-ish future, you will be my husband."

His grin got impossibly wider and he thought his heart might burst.

He never imagined that he'd feel this happy, this complete. He never thought he'd be lucky enough. His life seemed to be one disaster after another where everything he loved was taken from him over and over again. His mother, his father, the Darlings, the small amount of trust he put in Hook, Emma, the son he didn't know he had, Tamara, Emma and Henry again.

Over the last two years his luck changed from bad to good to amazing. He found Emma and Henry, Emma still loved him, Emma still wanted him, Henry wanted him, his father…well that took a while but it was getting there and they were in a civil and more friendly place, his now future-in-laws had pretty much accepted him after saving their daughter and grandson's life at the near cost of his own – multiple times, he was going to be a father again, this time raising the child the way they were supposed to raise Henry and now…now he was going to marry Emma. He had a family. A strange ass family, but a family and he was not going to let them slide through his fingers. They were his to keep forever and nothing was going to take that from him ever again.

"I certainly can live with that." He breathed, trying in vain to keep the tears springing to his eyes.

They shared another grin and Emma pulled him down for another kiss, both oblivious to the presence in the doorway.

The near teenager had come down to grab his ritual evening hot chocolate with cinnamon only to catch the tail end of his parents' conversation.

Henry knew it had to be coming - and was almost going to not so subtly bring it up to his father. As always, his mother seemed one step ahead of him but it didn't surprise him.

Nothing surprised him anymore, not in his family.

He longed to rejoice with them but he knew this was their moment and they were clearly too wrapped up in each other to notice he was there.

So, his hot chocolate forgotten, Henry turned and went back upstairs, leaving his newly engaged parents to each other and grinning all the way.


End file.
